Mita Mukherjee

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has written a letter to the chief secretary of West Bengal asking the state government take action to prevent recurrence of incidents like the one took place at Gopalnagar at Kaliachak in Bengal’s Malda district in which five children were seriously injured in a bomb blast in April this year.

After a detailed inquiry following  the incident, the NCPCR had asked the state government to set up a State Level Standing Committee on Border Protection Grid on Indo-Bangladesh border, convene quarterly meetings and submit the reports to the commission to avert such incidents.

The NCPCR chairperson Priyank  Kanoongo said in the letter to the Bengal chief secretary Hari Krishna Dwivedi on Thursday, “No response has so far been received from your good office to the Commission’s endorsement and recommendations based on the findings of the BSF authorities for setting up a State Level Standing Committee on Border Protection Grid on Indo-BD border and convene quarterly meeting on the same, to avert such incidences, in the interest of the children.”

At least five children were injured after crude bombs they were playing with, mistaking those for balls, had exploded in Kaliachak’s  Gopalnagar village, close to the India-Bangladesh border. The bombs had been allegedly hidden in a pit near the place.

Kanoongo in his letter requested the state chief secretary to look into the matter and submit the reports on the actions taken by the state government in this regard within ten days of receipt of the letter.

This is the second time the NCPCR has written to the state government regarding setting up the State Level Standing Committee to prevent recurrence of similar incidents. The committee is supposed to review, monitor, and strengthen the Border Protection Grid on the Indo-BD border, the letter said. A similar letter was issued in August in this regard, but no response has been received, the NCPCR said.

Similar incidents had been reported along the Indo-Bangladesh border in the past and the NCPCR had earlier said that no police action had been taken against the perpetrators. The child rights protection agency had claimed that the incidents that took place in the past had been ignored saying that they were cylinder blasts.

Also Read:  NCPCR guidelines: Minors should not be made to work for more than six hours